Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
E5: Energy
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
L-2920 Luxembourg
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
29 January 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
29 January 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
29 January 2024
3.1. Data description
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
3.2. Classification system
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual natural gas consumption bands and tax levels.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disagregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculated the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE).
Some of the taxes are refundable, as defined in the national metadata.
Since reference period 2021 semester 2, countries report subsidies and allowances to alleviate the increased energy costs. Detailed description is available in the national metadata.
3.5. Statistical unit
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
3.6. Statistical population
Member States must ensure that a representative share of the national market is covered by their data collection system.
3.7. Reference area
Electricity prices are presented at national level for EU Member States, EFTA and candidate countries.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The first full set of price data that was collected with the new methodology is available from the second semester 2007 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and does the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2. For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
At EU level:
Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/XXXX (in progress) concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
At national level:
Refer to national metadata
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation apart from its usual dissemination channel (Eurostat's database, Statistics Explained articles and press or news releases).
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
At EU level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
At national level:
Refer to national metadata
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Published data should not allow the identification of single consumers.
8.1. Release calendar
The precise date of data release is disseminated on Eurostat's website (select language and release calendar).
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
semestrial
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Gas prices for the household sector are announced semestrially end-April and end-October for the previous reference period.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Data is disseminated in the form of a Statistics Explained article every 6 months. The full scope of all prices for all consumption bands is available from Eurobase.
Pursuant to Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1952, "Every three years, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a standard quality report on the data in accordance with the quality criteria laid down in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. Those reports shall include information on the scope and collection of the data, the calculation criteria, the methodology and data sources used, and any changes thereto."
11.2. Quality management - assessment
As the methodology for the data collection of the gas prices is well defined, the data set provides price information that is comparable between countries.
However, users should be aware, that whenever gas prices in Euro for non-Euro countries are compared in time, the effects of differences in exchange rates are also taken into account. Whenever prices are calculated and/or presented in Euro, the average exchange rates of the 2 quarters of the appropriate semester are taken as a reference
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Gas prices are of vital importance for the society and the economy. Prices for households affect quality of life. At the same time, prices for non-households have a significant impact on production costs and also affect energy efficiency.
The main users of energy price data are other units within Eurostat, other Directorates General of the European Commission [DG ENER, DG MOVE, DG COMP, DG ECFIN, DG TAXUD etc.], other European Institutions [European Parliament] and Agencies [European Environment Agency, the Energy Community Secretariat], international organisations [the International Energy Agency – IEA, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries –OPEC, etc.], national authorities, businesses, professional associations [Eurogas, Eurelectric, etc.], news agencies [Reuters, Bloomberg], researchers/academics and other users.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Eurostat user satisfaction surveys cover the energy domain.
The published prices are based on real invoiced prices that are paid by end-users
The published disaggregated prices are based on real invoiced prices that are paid by end-users.
13.2. Sampling error
Not available.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not available.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable
14.1. Timeliness
Price data are delivered to Eurostat 3 months after the reference period or earlier.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable at European level
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable at European level
14.2. Punctuality
For the reference periods 2019, 2020 and 2021, semester 1 and 2, Eurostat received 1647 data transmissions for Prices.
84.8% of the first transmissions were submitted on time. 90.7% of the first transmissions were submitted in one week after the legal deadline.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Pursuant to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1952, "The Commission (Eurostat) shall disseminate natural gas and electricity price statistics no later than five months after the end of each reference period."
Eurostat disseminates the data one month before the legal deadline.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Good comparability as a unique methodology is in place that describes the collection of gas and electricity prices.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
From 2007 second semester onwards, prices are reported with a new methodology as defined in Commission Decision 2007/394/EC.
For prices that were collected before this time a different methodology was in place. Comparing the new methodology prices with old methodology prices is possible, but the reader should be aware, that not only standard reference consumers were replaced with standard bands, but also that the data collection with the new methodology is done on real price data while the old methodology was often performed on tarif price data.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Please refer to national metadata.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable
Not available at European level. For the cost and burden at national level, please refer to the relevant metadata.
In case, only provisional national price data is available, this data is marked with a "p" (provisional). This provisional data is used for calculating (provisional) EU aggregates. As soon as definitive data is available, both the final national data as well as final corrected aggregated data are introduced.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The revision practice effectively corresponds to the revision practice of the domain, as listed under sub‑concept 17.1 (data revision – policy).
Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. When relevant, reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated. European aggregates are updated for consistency with new country data. Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated either right away or with the next regular production cycle, depending on the impact of the change.
Time series breaks caused by major revisions are flagged. Whenever feasible, back-calculation is applied to provide break-free data.
Major revisions are pre-announced using the revision pre-announcement form. They are also documented in the validation exchanges with countries (available in Ares). In addition, major revisions (those with a visible impact on policy indicators) and their impact are analysed by asking countries for more information and by reflecting on its impact on major policy indicators. They are communicated e.g. via the relevant Statistics Explained article.
Incoming data is validated by Eurostat, by checking the price data on consistency and completeness. In case of abnormal increases or decreases, the reporting organisation will be requested to reconfirm the data. In practice, between 2-5 Member States report price-corrections (per dataset). These corrections might be due to the availability of final data instead of provisional data, or due to corrective measures. The prices are not seasonally adjusted.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
not applicable at European level
18.1. Source data
Natural gas price data is reported by National Statistical Institutes, Ministries, Energy Agencies, or or system operators. EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat by weighting the national prices with the latest available national consumption for households and non-households.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
semestrial
18.3. Data collection
Eurostat provides questionnaires (currently in excel or SDMX-csv format) to all data providers that cover the following areas:
Electricity prices for households
Electricity prices for non-households
Natural gas prices for households
Natural gas prices for non-households
Price Data for electricity is collected by the reporting authorities of the States from suppliers. This micro data is then aggregated by the reporting authorities to national average prices. Countries ensure that the sample is sufficiently large to ensure that a representative national price is achieved.
18.4. Data validation
National input data arevalidated by Eurostat for consistency and completeness.
In case of inconsistent price data, the data providers are contacted to request a reconfirmation of the data.
18.5. Data compilation
Member states must report national prices that are representative for the whole country. These national prices will represent weighted average prices, using the market shares of electricity supply undertakings surveyed as weighting factors.
EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat, once the price data set is complete.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
not applicable at European level
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Exchange rates to convert non-euro prices to euro-prices are taken as the average exchange rate for quarter 1 and 2 (for semester 1 price data) and as the average rate for quarter 3 and 4 (for semester 2 data).
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
29 January 2024
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disagregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculated the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE).
Some of the taxes are refundable, as defined in the national metadata.
Since reference period 2021 semester 2, countries report subsidies and allowances to alleviate the increased energy costs. Detailed description is available in the national metadata.
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
Member States must ensure that a representative share of the national market is covered by their data collection system.
Electricity prices are presented at national level for EU Member States, EFTA and candidate countries.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2. For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
The published prices are based on real invoiced prices that are paid by end-users
The published disaggregated prices are based on real invoiced prices that are paid by end-users.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and does the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
Member states must report national prices that are representative for the whole country. These national prices will represent weighted average prices, using the market shares of electricity supply undertakings surveyed as weighting factors.
EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat, once the price data set is complete.
Natural gas price data is reported by National Statistical Institutes, Ministries, Energy Agencies, or or system operators. EU aggregates are calculated by Eurostat by weighting the national prices with the latest available national consumption for households and non-households.
semestrial
Price data are delivered to Eurostat 3 months after the reference period or earlier.
Good comparability as a unique methodology is in place that describes the collection of gas and electricity prices.
From 2007 second semester onwards, prices are reported with a new methodology as defined in Commission Decision 2007/394/EC.
For prices that were collected before this time a different methodology was in place. Comparing the new methodology prices with old methodology prices is possible, but the reader should be aware, that not only standard reference consumers were replaced with standard bands, but also that the data collection with the new methodology is done on real price data while the old methodology was often performed on tarif price data.
